Lauren Long / The Post-StandardC.J. Fair ties up the game 44-44 with a two point basket midway through the second half of Wednesday's game against Georgetown. Playing defense is Henry Sims.

With about four minutes remaining in Wednesday night’s game against No. 11 Georgetown, the Syracuse Orange seemed to have matters under control.

And then, poof, the game was over and the scoreboard read: Georgetown 64, Syracuse 56.

“After the game, I was talking to Kris (Joseph) and I said ‘I just want to see what happened’,’’ Syracuse guard Brandon Triche said. “It happened so fast.’’

The 12th-ranked Orange led 55-52 and Rick Jackson, the Big East’s leading rebounder and the Orange’s double-double machine, had just recently returned to the game after sitting for nearly 10 minutes due to foul trouble.

But Georgetown scored nine straight points in a 2-minute span to notch its first victory at the Carrier Dome since the 2001-02 season. It was the first win at the Dome for Georgetown coach John Thompson III.

“Road wins in this league are hard to come by,’’ Thompson said. “Clearly, road wins for me (and) our team up here lately have been impossible to come by.’’

Syracuse (20-5 overall, 7-5 Big East) has now lost three straight home games for the first time since the 2001-02 season.

“You always want to protect your homecourt and we’ve failed to do that three times in a row,’’ said Joseph. “It doesn’t happen much here in Syracuse.’’

Georgetown (19-5 overall, 8-4 in the Big East) continued its remarkable turnaround. After losing four of its first five Big East games, Georgetown has now won seven in a row.

The Hoyas held Syracuse to just one point in the game’s last four minutes. The Orange didn’t make a field goal after C.J. Fair’s short jumper gave Syracuse a 53-49 lead with 6:37 remaining.

“We had control of the game,’’ SU coach Jim Boeheim said. “We got a lot of stops and we kept coming down and we could not get the ball in the basket. Sooner or later, that’s going to catch up to you.’’

Syracuse kept Georgetown’s offense in check for most of the game, but in the final four minutes the Orange suffered two critical defensive lapses in the halfcourt and another in transition.

Syracuse left Georgetown’s Hollis Thompson, a 44 percent 3-point shooter, wide open on the wing. Thompson’s trey tied the game at 55. A turnover led to a breakaway layup for Austin Freeman and Georgetown’s first lead in nearly 10 minutes.

Then Georgetown center Julian Vaughn caught the backline of Syracuse’s zone defense napping and hit Jason Clark for a beautiful backdoor layup. Clark scored again on another layup in transition and the Hoyas had scored nine straight points.

“We made just a couple (defensive) mistakes,’’ Boeheim said. “We didn’t make a lot of mistakes, but we made probably two mistakes that led to layups down at the other end.’’

Syracuse held Georgetown, the Big East’s best-shooting team, to 45 percent field goal shooting. The Hoyas made six out of 12 shots from 3-point range in the first half, but cooled off in the second half, making just three of their nine tries.

But Syracuse struggled on offense and that’s been a losing proposition all season. The Orange made just 39 percent of its field goal attempts, running its record to 1-3 in the Big East when falling below the 40 percent mark. In addition, Syracuse went 4-for-16 from 3-point range.

“We’ve got make some shots,’’ Boeheim said. “In the games we’ve struggled in, we’ve shot less than 40 percent and less than 30 percent from the three.’’

Syracuse looked to be in great position after surviving without Jackson for a large chunk of the second half. Jackson, who had 16 double-doubles in Syracuse’s first 24 games and had not fouled out once all season, picked up his fourth foul with 14:40 left in the game. Syracuse trailed 39-38 at the time.

Freshman center Baye Moussa Keita and reserve forward C.J. Fair picked up the slack for the Orange. Fair scored 12 points and grabbed five rebounds, while Keita contributed four points, four rebounds and five blocked shots in 18 minutes.

When Jackson re-entered the game, Syracuse had turned the slim deficit into a 53-50 lead. But Jackson missed a short hook shot the first time he touched the ball and Syracuse’s next three field goal attempts were all 3-pointers. All missed.

Meanwhile, Georgetown had started the game-clinching run. In the blink of an eye all the good the Orange had done in the two recent road wins at Connecticut and South Florida was gone.

“I think we had some chippies that we missed,’’ SU guard Scoop Jardine said. “We gave them two and three opportunities on the defensive end where they got chances to score because we didn’t rebound. That was the game.

“Eventually, they’re going to capitalize,’’ Jardine added. “We had chances to put them away and we didn’t. In the Big East, if you don’t put teams away, if you make bonehead turnovers or miss rebounds, you’re going to lose.’’